Philippines shifts focus from insurgency to maritime defence against China

The Philippines is shifting its military focus from combating separatist movements to addressing the growing threat from China. For decades, Philippine soldiers were deployed to combat Islamist separatist movements in the country’s southwest.

Now, the military is undergoing a strategic shift to address what its leaders call an urgent threat: China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, a vital waterway claimed by multiple nations including the Philippines.

The Philippines and six other countries claimed the strategic waterway and Beijing’s actions not only threatened Philippine security but also challenged Western efforts to contain China’s power.

Philippine military overhaul

In order to address this new threat, the Philippine military is rebuilding its capabilities, allocating the largest share of its modernisation budget to the navy for the first time, according to the report of Washington Post that quoted Philippine leaders and Western analysts as saying.

The government is investing in missiles, fighter jets and warships, redirecting funds previously used for counterinsurgency campaigns. With relative peace secured in the southern islands, the Philippine Marine Corps is being retrained to fight foreign forces rather than militants.

The Basilan Strait, within Philippine territorial waters, has seen at least 10 Chinese naval ships pass through on three occasions in 2024, without violating international law. However, Rear Adm. Francisco Tagamolila Jr. has increased surveillance and monitoring, upgrading undersea radar systems. Officers are receiving training on international law regarding foreign vessel stops and searches.

Training and preparation

The military is planning to establish “forward operating bases” on Basilan and other islands to support an increased naval presence. Instead of purchasing rifles and grenades, the command will acquire weapons to assert the Philippines’ maritime claims and resist intruders, according to Col. Allen Van Estrera.

However, China has criticised the Philippines’ shift in focus, warning against “playing with fire” in disputed waters and vowing to “crush hostile encroachment.” The Chinese Embassy in Washington said that China has the right to freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, blaming Philippine provocation for escalating tensions.

Rising tensions in the South China Sea

China has rapidly expanded its military and has become increasingly assertive in pursuing territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. The tensions have led to more frequent confrontations, primarily with the Philippines and Vietnam, though the longtime territorial disputes also involve Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Taiwan.

The outgoing Biden administration has moved to strengthen an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any future confrontation over Taiwan. America’s moves dovetail with Philippine efforts to shore up its territorial defence following its increasingly hostile territorial spats with China that started last year.

Combat exercises

Philippine forces practised retaking an island in the South China Sea earlier this month in the first such combat exercise in the disputed waters as Chinese navy ships kept watch from a distance, the Philippine military chief said.

Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., who witnessed the drills from a navy frigate had said the exercise underscored the readiness of Filipino forces to defend the country’s sovereignty at all costs. “We are warning our neighbors or whoever or any external forces that we are capable of defending our islands,” Brawner told a small group of journalists invited to the exercises.

The long-seething territorial disputes that also involve other claimants are a delicate fault line in the U.S.-China rivalry in Asia and likely will remain a major foreign policy concern for the next American president.

In the drills, a Philippine navy frigate approached Loaita Island, which the Philippines calls Kota Island, while four speedboats with marines and navy sailors landed on its beach. A Philippine air force aircraft later dropped food and other supplies to the forces that retook the island.

Brawner said Chinese navy ships observing from a distance “added realism to the exercise.”

With inputs from agencies.